Marginalia: Notes Found in Used Books

A small museum of what strangers left behind.

In a 1968 Walden: “He never did laundry” — underlined twice, page 112. Fair.

In a paperback Rilke: a grocery list that reads like a poem by accident. Milk, candles, stamps, ask about the dog.

In a calculus textbook, beside the mean value theorem: “This is also true of grief.” No name. Pencil. I have thought about it for six years.

Marginalia is the only literary genre written with no audience and no ego. Naturally, it is the most honest one we have.

On keeping books alive: aldus-in-venice-1495.